That’s the World Wildlife Fund’s annual global event urging everyone to turn off their lights between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., to protest man-made global warming.

This is the public face of environmentalism today, with its never-ending, friendly-sounding, politically correct, fundraising campaigns, typically featuring cute pictures of the polar bears we’re presumably going to save from drowning.

But the environmental movement has another face, a nasty, brutish, sneering, elitist and authoritarian one.

Its proclamations range from the farcical to the alarming, constantly churned out by smug, self-righteous, holier-than-thou, green ideologues and their fellow travellers, who believe they have a divine right to tell everyone else how to live.

Here then, in dubious honour of the most recent Earth Hour, is a selection of the often bizarre thoughts of the global warm-mongers and their allies, fellow travellers and predecessors.

Decide for yourself whether they’re all about saving the polar bears and the planet, or something more sinister.

“You can deny global warming (and may you be punished in the afterlife for doing so — this kind of denial for petty personal or political reasons is an almost inconceivable sin).” — Paul Krugman, New York Times, March 15, 2013.

“One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important (climate change) policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century.” — Thomas Friedman, New York Times, Sept. 8, 2009.

“Every time someone dies as a result of floods in Bangladesh, an airline executive should be dragged out of his office and drowned.” — George Monbiot, The Guardian, Dec. 5, 2006.

“What I would challenge you to do is to put a lot of effort into trying to see whether there’s a legal way of throwing our so-called leaders into jail, because what they’re doing is a criminal act.” — David Suzuki, calling for the jailing of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and then Alberta premier Ed Stelmach for “intergenerational” climate crimes against humanity, at McGill University, National Post, Feb. 7, 2008.

“Under this final scenario, humans would have no choice but to establish an Earth Commission for Thermostatic Control, something that could easily grow from the Kyoto Protocol … Countries standing behind the commission would seek an array of incentives, including sanctions … for these punitive measures to have maximum effect, an international court would be required and — in cases of last resort — an international armed force for use against recalcitrants. Perhaps they will wear green helmets rather than blue, but the UN peacekeepers offer a fine model, as to how this arm of the commission might first evolve … Inevitably, one day some commissioner will suggest that their work would be more effectively done were they to concentrate on the root cause of the issue — the total number of people on the planet … As horrific as such an outcome is, if we delay action to combat the climate crisis, the carbon dictatorship may become essential for our survival.” — Tim Flannery, The Weather Makers, 2005.

“The truth is that Mozart, Pascal, Boolean algebra, Shakespeare, parliamentary government, baroque churches, Newton, the emancipation of women, Kant, Marx, Balanchine ballet et al … don’t redeem what this particular civilization has wrought upon the world. The white race is the cancer of human history. It is the white race and it alone — its ideologies and inventions — which eradicates autonomous civilizations wherever it spreads, which has upset the ecological balance of the planet, which now threatens the very existence of life itself.” — The late Susan Sontag, Partisan Review, Winter, 1967, quoted in Christopher Horner’s The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism.

“Humans have grown like a cancer. We’re the biggest blight on the face of the earth.” — Ingrid Newkirk, President of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, 1990.

Seriously, can you imagine what the world would be like if people with ideas like these were put in charge of it?

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.